Indianapolis Man Pleads Guilty To Making Threats And Mailing A Dead Animal

Tampa, Florida – Romney Christopher Ellis (55, Indianapolis, IN) has pleaded guilty to making threats and mailing a dead animal using the U.S. Mail. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 30, 2020.

According to court documents, for the past four years, Ellis has engaged in a campaign of harassment against a victim residing in Hillsborough County through text messages, photographs, videos, and mailings. He threatened to decapitate and set the victim on fire, and he routinely made racially and sexually charged statements in the text messages, including sending sexually explicit images of himself. At times, Ellis sent text messages stating that he had traveled from Indiana to Florida to see the victim. Ellis also used the U.S. Mail to harass the victim and the victim’s friends and family. On one occasion, Ellis mailed a package to the victim’s home containing a dead rat and black rose.

On February 13, 2020, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Ellis’s home in Indianapolis and recovered a handwritten note containing the names and addresses of the victim and the victim’s family and friends.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Lisa M. Thelwell and Daniel George.